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Health Care Reform And Depression On The 4th Of July

We are in the middle of 2010 gearing up for fireworks; waiting for the new health care reform law to take effect. Eleven state attorneys general said they wanted to challenge the law as being unconstitutional and the Democrats are still talking about passing amendments. Moreover, there are many questions that remain unanswered; the biggest of which is, Will it make health care more effective? The obvious answer is no. This entire scenario is one big shell game. There are thousands of pages of new law and most of the law makers are clueless.

The reality check is that the Congress has passed this bill with a three year delay in implementation, so it was designed to change nothing for the immediate future with the hope that after three years, with no one paying attention anymore, the administration can sneak a few changes in to implement its socialist agenda. Meanwhile, we as a society still have the same health issues in a system that continues to thrive on treatment rather than prevention. One prime example is depression and anxiety. People naturally become depressed in the kind of severe economic downturn that we are experiencing with increased anxiety about a future that looks bleak. Medical insurance, health insurance or some type of managed care health plan seems irrelevant when facing unemployment. In a depressed economy, with massive anxiety and depression plaguing the population there is a serious public health problem. This kind of insidious upheaval leads to other chronic diseases like, diabete3s, high blood pressure, heart attack and the like.

The generally accepted treatment however, is for the pharmaceutical companies to make billions of dollars selling anti-depressants and tranquilizers. Moreover, aside from monetizing human responses to stressful stimuli, there is a political benefit to having massive numbers of citizens living in chemically induced altered realities. People on Prozac are less likely to protest against nefarious political agendas. Therefore, what motivation does the government have to reform health care to the extent that people will have better access to professional counseling for coping with and resolving their struggles?

In conclusion, as we throw a few slabs of meat on the barbecue grill and sip some beer on this 4th of July we need to realize that there are a few avenues toward seizing power and control that the founding fathers could not anticipate. The constitution is a wonderful document and has saved our republic from despotism enumerable times in our 214 year history. However, it is subject to interpretation and we know from experience that Supreme Court justices take opposite views of what is or is not constitutional depending upon whether they are liberal or conservative. Therefore, we need to be diligent in letting our political leaders know that we are not as stupid as they think. We need to consistently remind them that they work for us. That is why freedom of speech is still the most important constitutional amendment.

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